Daniel Gunkel (born 7 June 1980) is a German former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Career

Gunkel was born in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. He made his debut on the professional league level in the

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

for Energie Cottbus on 8 August 2004, when he started the game against

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., commonly known as simply FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English, is a German professional football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs ''Kölner Ballspi ...

. After playing for

1. FSV Mainz 05 1. Fußball- und Sportverein Mainz 05 e. V., usually shortened to 1. FSV Mainz 05, Mainz 05 () or simply Mainz (), is a German sports club, founded in 1905 and based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. 1. FSV Mainz 05 play in the Bundesliga, the top ...

and then TuS Koblenz in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

and 2. Bundesliga, he played for Greek club

Panetolikos F.C. Panetolikos Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Παναιτωλικός), or with its full name Panetolikós Yimnastikós Filekpedeftikós Síllogos ( el, Παναιτωλικός Γυμναστικός Φιλεκπαιδευτικός Σύλλογος'' ...

for half of the 2010–11 season. He returned to Germany in February 2011, signing with Kickers Offenbach.

Personal life

Gunkel also holds Ivorian citizenship. His father is a diplomat from

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

and his mother is German.

References

External links

* 1980 births Living people German men's footballers German people of Ivorian descent Men's association football midfielders Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Rot-Weiss Frankfurt players Eintracht Frankfurt II players Dresdner SC players SV Wehen Wiesbaden players FC Energie Cottbus players 1. FSV Mainz 05 players TuS Koblenz players Panetolikos F.C. players Kickers Offenbach players BSV Schwarz-Weiß Rehden players German expatriate men's footballers German expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Footballers from Frankfurt {{germany-footy-midfielder-1980s-stub